Ontario Court Grants Leave and Certifies Money Laundering Misrepresentation Class Action Against The Toronto-Dominion Bank

TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 3, 2026, the Honourable Madam Justice Janet Leiper of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted leave under Part XXIII.1 of the Ontario Securities Act and certified a misrepresentation class action against The Toronto-Dominion Bank ("TD") and certain of its senior leadership (Bharat B. Masrani, Leovigildo Salom, Kelvin Vi Luan Tran, Alan N. MacGibbon, Mary A. Winston, Brian M. Levitt and Michael Bowman).

The action alleges that the Defendants, from December 1, 2021 to October 10, 2024, made misrepresentations that concealed the "longstanding, pervasive and systemic deficiencies" in their anti-money laundering ("AML") Controls and their deliberate decision to prioritize profits over regulatory compliance. These AML Controls failures led to TD's U.S. subsidiaries becoming the first banks in U.S. history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. authorities imposed more than US$3 billion in penalties and an indefinite asset cap on the growth of TD's U.S. retail and commercial banking business.

The action alleges that the Defendants made misrepresentations regarding these AML Controls deficiencies, and related investigations and prosecutions, including in their financial reporting. It also alleges that, once the truth was revealed to the market, TD's market capitalization dropped by CA$30 billion, causing significant investor losses.  

In granting the Plaintiffs leave to proceed, Justice Leiper found they have a reasonable chance of proving the statutory misrepresentation claims at trial. She reasoned: "Investors were not told that the Bank was deliberately courting legal risk by starving its AML program to deliver favourable returns. TD communicated about a risk management approach that was contradicted by the facts it agreed to with the DOJ."

Justice Leiper also certified an aggregate damages common issues, noting "[a]ggregate damages can act as a deterrent for a failure to abide by the continuous disclosure regime that exists to protect investors from the informational asymmetry that exists between issuers and purchasers of securities."

Joel Rochon, managing partner of Rochon Genova, stated "This is an important step in holding TD accountable to the very investors that have entrusted it with their savings and investments. This decision underscores the need for public financial institutions to be diligent, transparent and robust in their reporting of material information to investors, particularly given their importance to the integrity of the capital markets."

The Defendants deny the Plaintiffs' allegations and the Court has not yet ruled on the merits of the class action.

The Plaintiffs in this action are represented by Joel P. Rochon, Peter R. Jervis, Douglas Worndl, Golnaz Nayerahmadi, Sarah J. Fiddes and Pritpal Mann.

Class Members do not need to take any action at this time. More information about the class action is available on the TD AML case page.

SOURCE Rochon Genova